Manifest injustice
Ken Harris is a fisherman based in Moeraki. He has been fishing for over 40 years and owns several fishing boats. In January 2025, a boat he owns, skippered by another guy, illegally trawled 16x the normal elephantfish catch off the Orari river mouth in north Canterbury, at a time when the area is closed to protect introduced salmon. It’s also an important habitat for Hector’s dolphins, but there’s no protection from trawling for the dolphins there. When questioned, Harris said he didn’t know the rules. He was prosecuted by MPI, fined the cost of the day’s catch and had his boat forfeited to the crown.
Less than a month later, Harris was set netting in another of his boats, the FV Emma Jane, north of Oamaru. He caught and killed a Hector’s dolphin and instructed the crew to cut and drop the net to let the dolphin’s body sink to the sea floor. In his catch report, he denied killing any endangered species. But the dodgy behaviour on the boat led the camera review team in MPI to look at the footage of the fishing effort. When questioned, Harris said he might have caught ‘a dirty old shag or a seven giller’ (a cormorant or a shark). When questioned again, he said he’d caught a common dolphin, and ‘probably should have reported it’.
Killing Hector’s dolphins in fishing nets isn’t a crime under the Fisheries Act. And although it is under the Marine Mammals Protection Act administered by the Department of Conservation, DOC deferred prosecution to MPI. When the case finally went to court, Harris was fined just $5000 and also ordered to forfeit his boat. DOC prosecuted no charges.
By December, Harris was given both his boats back for just $14,460 by a Judge in the Timaru District Court. The reason for returning both boats was “to avoid manifest injustice”.
We believe there has been manifest injustice alright, and it wasn’t the weak fines given to Mr Harris. The manifest injustice lies in a system that allows Hector’s dolphins to be killed for no reason at all, and dumped at sea, and lied about.
The manifest injustice lies in a system where the Department of Conservation hands over its own prosecution responsibilities to the Ministry for Primary Industries when it knows under MPI rules, killing dolphins isn’t a crime.
The manifest injustice lies where Hector’s dolphins, the world’s smallest, among the rarest, only found here, can be killed by their thousands. In fact, Harris’ boat, the Triton, has killed hundreds of Hector’s dolphins through time.
Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders is here to fight injustices like these, the actions and regulatory inaction, that allows this to continue.
We’ll keep fighting for the dolphins, with your help. If you’ve donated to support our work for the dolphins throughout the year, we’ll send you a receipt after the end of the financial year (31 March). If you make us a donation before then, you’ll qualify for a 30% rebate straight away, getting a third of your donation back. You can donate here, thanks to those of you who already do.
Posted: 9 March 2026